China will build a network of 85,000-km-expressway in the next three decades, connecting cities with a population of over 200,000, Zhang Chunxian, minister of communications disclosed Thursday at a press conference of the State Council Information Office.

Formed by seven lines from Beijing, nine lines from north to south and 18 from east to west, the network, known in short as "7918 Network," will cover a region with a population of one billion, Zhang said.

He told the conference, of the total length, 29,000 km have been built, 16,000 km under construction and 40,000 km yet to be built, with 32,000 km to be built in central and western regions.

Under the guideline of "beefing up the road coverage in eastern region, interconnecting the roads in central region and realizing the accessibility of the expressway in western region," the network will connect Beijing with all provincial capitals, link major prefecture cities and cover the important counties, Zhang said.

According to the plan, the seven radiating expressways are the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Taipei, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao, Beijing-Kunming, Beijing-Urumchi, and Beijing-Harbin expressways.

Among the total length, 68,000 km are truck roads and 17,000 km are five regional ring roads. There are also two parallel routes and more than 30 connecting links.

By the end of 2004, 34,000 km of expressway have been in use in China, ranking second in the world.

The plan acknowledged that another 1,000 km of expressway will be built at the end of 2005, accounting for 40 percent of the total length.